AUBURN, Ala. - The Auburn men's swimming and diving team had its five-year unbeaten streak in dual meets come to an end as the third-ranked Tigers fell to No. 1 Texas, 130-113, Thursday at the James E. Martin Aquatics Center. Auburn had won 44 consecutive dual meets dating back to its last loss five years ago to the day, Jan. 11, 2001, also at home against Texas.

Still, the Tigers have several solid performances, posting four `B' cut times and collecting six zone qualifying scores from the divers.

"It was pretty much what we anticipated," said Auburn head coach David Marsh. "We knew it was going to be a tough meet for us. Texas just has a lot of front-line guys and they swam well. We swam pretty well. We needed a few more breaks and we needed a few more guys to step up. But I think we learned a lot, and this time of the season that's what you're looking for."

Alexei Puninski was the lone Auburn swimmer to win an individual event, taking the 50 freestyle with an Auburn season-best time of 20.27 seconds. Puninski also helped Auburn to victory in the 400 free relay, leading off ahead of Bryan Lundquist, Jakob Andkjaer and Scott Goodrich as Auburn posted a `B' cut time of 2:56.61.

Steven Segerlin continued his mastery of the diving events, winning both the 1-meter and 3-meter competitions. Segerlin recorded a season-best score of 354.15 to win the 1-meter event, while Dan Mazzaferro placed second with a zone qualifying score of 303.22. Four Tigers posted zone qualifying totals in the 3-meter, led by Segerlin's season-best score of 380.62. Kelly Marx placed second (350.02), Mazzafarro was third (342.07) and Scott Morgan finished fourth (333.74).

Segerlin has won every 1-meter event he has entered this season and has won all but one 3-meter competition, finishing second once.

"Overall, I was fairly pleased," said head diving coach Jeff Shaffer. "We have some work to do in some areas, but Steve was real consistent, winning both events. I thought our freshmen would've performed a little bit better on the 1-meter, but I'm happy with the basic results because they've never been put in a pressure situation before, and that's great for them to experience."

In the 100 free, Andkjaer and Lundquist both posted `B' cut times, finishing second (43.94) and third (44.39) respectively. The men's 400 medley relay team of Joey Schneider, Sean Osborne, Puninski and Andkjaer finished second with a `B' cut and season-best time of 3:16.70.